A DEVOTED grandmother who was found on the Morecambe Bay Coastline after a multi-agency search died as a result of drowning, an inquest heard.

The coroner concluded that Ann Kennion Warren, 69, took her own life on December 19, 2020 after she was found near the main Kent Channel in Grange-over-Sands, The Coroner’s Court in Cockermouth was told.

The Brantwood resident had a passion for music and singing as well as her beloved grandchildren according to her daughter Jenny Hanson.

“Her grandchildren were born in 2009 and 2011 and she enjoyed spending time with them,” Mrs Hanson told the court in a statement.

“He loved her time with them and would always arrange fun things for them to do.”

She went on to say how her mother’s burning mouth syndrome, which she developed in Spring 2020 after contracting what they suspected was coronavirus, had a huge impact on her life.

BMS is a burning or scalding sensation that most commonly affects your tongue, but may also affect your lips, gums, palate, throat.

PC Braithwaite, who is a volunteer with Morecambe Bay’s search and rescue teams was called to the missing woman incident which involved a multi-agency approach involving the Morecambe RNLI Hover Station, Cumbria Police, Kendal Mountain Rescue Team, Bay Search & Rescue, North West Ambulance Service and Ulverston Inshore Rescue.

He told the court her body was spotted by his team at 11.17am.

Mrs Warren’s husband Stuart Warren explained in a statement that her BMS had “caused a great deal of distress” and that he had stopped her from making an attempt at taking her own life the night before she died.

“I woke at 2.45am and saw she was not in bed and then had a look around the house and the nearby woods before calling the police,” he said.

“I later received the awful news.”

Dr Stuart Allan of Nutwood Medical Practice in Grange had decided that the Widnes-born woman, who had been taking anti-depressants for 20 years, had decided she did meet the criteria to be admitted into a mental health unit due to her support network, something which her daughter Mrs Hanson expressed her disappointment at during the inquest hearing.

Pathologist Mark Sissons explained there was evidence that Mrs Warren had been immersed in water, which led him to the decision that her cause of death was by way of drowning.

Coroner Ms Kirsty Gomersal accepted this cause of death and took into consideration why she would be out at that time of night and her previous attempt on her life when ruling how she died.

“I am satisfied she did deliberately attempt to take her own life that night,” she concluded.